Fans of Deadliest Catch have been with the show for years, so long in fact that the series is now in its 20th season. The show has been going since 2005, but in a new trailer for Season 20, many fans noticed that some of the show’s most familiar faces appeared to be missing.

Jake Anderson, Sophia “Bob” Nielsen, and Sean Dwyer appear to be absent from the upcoming season, along with the Saga, one of the  boats that has been with the show since the beginning. Now, fans want to know why Jake isn’t in Season 20.

Why is Jake Anderson not on ‘Deadliest Catch’?

According to TV Insider, Jake’s boat, the Saga, was locked up and repossessed, leaving Jake with no way to provide for his family. However, he’s definitely still on the show. Jake ultimately returned to the Northwestern, having to take some humble pills and return to the ship where he initially learned the ropes. In speaking with TV Insider, Jake said that he found out he wouldn’t be able to take the boat out just days beforehand.

“With the boat, I found out on a Friday in August,” Jake said. “Everything was situated to go red crab fishing. Then September 1, things started to look dark. Just before I was getting to go red crab fishing, I found out my partner, with all due respect with the legal things going on, we don’t know what he did. I lost my boat. In saying that, I don’t think there has ever been a show to watch the American dream unfold and watch it crumble at the same time.”

Jake ultimately turned to Sig Hansen, his old mentor, for support after losing his boat.

“As fishermen and fisherwomen, the camaraderie is something special,” Jake said. “It’s a very honorable profession. Not just for Sig, but I think any one of us would do that for each other, even if we were an enemy. For Sig specifically, not that I expected him to take me in, but we both knew we’d had a tumultuous relationship.”

Without my  boat, I’m not a threat to him anymore,” Jake added. “I can only be an asset. Honestly, if you asked him I think he was, in a very small way, happy to have some of his team back again.”

Jake added that the tumultuous relationship will extend into the season.

“I think the fans will have to watch because I don’t want to give away any spoilers,” Jake said. “But like I said we have a tumultuous relationship. I really had to step down, and that was really hard for me. It really settled in where I was and where I was in reality in that I didn’t think I was going to end up sitting on the port side of the old boat I used to work on.”

“For me, I’m very honest with them so the public can see I believe in the show and believe in fishing,” Jake added. “That they can see my open heart, especially when it’s raw like that…It is entertaining. I’ll tell you that.”

Many ‘Deadliest Catch’ crew members have been injured — and killed — after falling overboard.

With 20 seasons under its belt, Deadliest Catch keeps its fans on their toes. When they’re not wondering if the crew what twists and turns will happen to the crew during the Alaskan crab season, fans are also keeping up with the personal crises the crew faces on and off the ship. Since Deadliest Catch premiered in 2005, the dangers that come from the crew’s time at sea can come when they least expected.

On multiple occasions, someone on the ship has fallen overboard, causing several deaths or injuries. Fans witnessed this in Season 20 when Captain Sig Hansen found that two of his crew members accidentally slipped into the freezing waters and fell overboard. Like many daring jobs, the Deadliest Catch team has procedures in place to rescue as many crew members as possible when they go overboard.

What happens when someone falls overboard on ‘Deadliest Catch’?

We’re not saying that every Deadliest Catch episode involves someone falling overboard. However, Discovery’s YouTube channel has multiple “man overboard” clips for fans to relive, so take that as you will. In 2017, one of the show’s stars, deckhand Spencer Moore, fell overboard while struggling to attach a pot to the block. The incident was one of Capt. Bill Wichrowski’s most frightening moments as he watched Spencer fall into the 34-degree water.

When someone falls overboard on Deadliest Catch, the crew does whatever they can to come together and help the person in need. In one 2013 episode, several crew members assisted a deckhand named Freddy after Freddy jumped into the freezing water unprovoked. While the crew agreed Freddy was “crazy” for jumping in the water with no clothes on, the team called out “Man Overboard” or “MOB,” and used their buoys to drag him out of the water.

The person guiding the ship often calls out “MOB,” and the crew automatically knows what to do. As seen in previous episodes, medical attention could be required if the person who fell has trouble breathing.

Fans questioned if the “Man Overboard” scene in Season 20 was staged.

As previously mentioned, Deadliest Catch started when many of us added (and deleted) our Myspace Top 8. So, over time, the show probably wanted to shake things up. However, some fans think they’ve gone as far as to stage the fall that occurred in Season 20, Ep. 6.

During the episode, Captain Sig, his son-in-law Clark Pederson, and the Deadliest Catch cameraman fell into the water. According to Collider, Captain Sig sent his crew on a rescue mission, pulling both men back onboard and immediately warming them up below deck.

Thankfully, Clark and the cameraman survived the horrific ordeal. Still, fans aren’t so convinced it wasn’t staged. Some felt Sid was practicing his acting chops as he frantically saved his son-in-law. Others, however, also suggested the scene looked fake because it was actually a safety drill to prepare the Clark for the dangerous waters ahead. The latter would be more plausible, since the Discovery show has never focused on entertainment.

Watch new episodes of Deadliest Catch on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EST. All episodes re available to stream on Max in the U.S.